82 



ON THE TRAINING OF VINES. 



very great. Immediately, however, the horizontal 

 line d^ is passed, and the shoot depressed below it in 

 the direction of e, the sap receives a considerable 

 check, and the shoots that push from it are proportion- 

 ately weak. If trained in the direction of/, they 

 will be weaker still, and if directly downwards, as at 

 g. the snpply of sap will be barely sufficient to ma- 

 ture the fruit. And further, if the shoot, instead of 

 being trained in a straight line, be bent in a crooked 

 or serpentine manner, the flow of the sap will be 

 additionally retarded. Thus, if it be trained in a ser- 

 pentine manner, resembling the line A, fig. 2, the sap 



Fis. 2. 



will flow slower than if trained in a straight line; if 

 like the lines ?*, /;, /, successively slower, the degree 

 of slowness increasing in proportion to the number of 

 bends or curves which the shoot is made to assume. 

 If, therefore, the shoot §•, fig. 1, be closely serpen- 

 tined in the manner of the line /, fig. 2, the sap will 

 be so retarded, that many of the buds will not burst 

 at all. 



Now, to apply to a practical purpose, this principle 

 of retarding the ascent of the sap, by depressing or 

 serpentining the shoots of a vine, it will be conven- 

 ient to treat of it in reference to winter training and 

 summer training. 



Winter training. When the shoots are nailed to 

 the wall in the early part of the year, those which 

 are trained at full length as fruit-bearers, are in all 



